A shocking new report from German media claims that a Syrian asylum seeker, who was roommates with Berlin Christmas market terrorist Anis Amri, warned authorities about him a year before the attack.
Syrian asylum seeker Mohamed J. lived in the same room as failed Tunisian asylum seeker Amri in 2015 and got to know him and his views well.
He told authorities that Amri was operating under false identities and that he had expressed not only a hatred for the West but also had sympathy for jihadists. However, police did not pursue the information, Neue Ruhr Zeitung reports.
Mohamed J. told German public broadcaster ZDF: “He said openly to us, ‘What are you doing here in the land of the unbelievers? I want to go to Syria and fight in jihad.’ ”
The Syrian spoke to his social worker regarding what Amri had told him and the information was soon passed on to police in October of 2015, but the Syrian asylum seeker heard nothing from police afterwards.
Later in July of 2016, Mohammed J. spoke with the Federal Agency for Migration and Refugees about Amri. “The Tunisian is very Islamically radical. He then moved to Berlin, where he filed a new application for asylum with a new identity,” he told them and once again heard nothing back.
Only after the attack, in late January of this year, was Mohammed J. questioned by police about Amri. The details of the interrogation are still unknown.
The report comes after other reports of multiple failures by German police and investigators regarding Amri.
It was revealed earlier this year that Amri was a small-time drug dealer and could have easily been arrested and deported long before he could commit his terror attack which killed 12 and injured more than 50.
Police have also been accused of manipulating information regarding Amri in order to cover up their own failures. Special investigator and former federal prosecutor Bruno Jost has said there is evidence of a police coverup.
Jost also revealed that despite the security services eventually putting Amri under observation, they did not bother watching his actions on weekends and holidays.